


Like Troubled Water Running Cold

by floralknight



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Juno Steel Needs a Hug, Rita & Juno Steel Friendship, Rita is a Good Friend (Penumbra Podcast)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:20:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23147614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/floralknight/pseuds/floralknight
Summary: Rita's struggles when Juno disappears.
Relationships: Rita & Juno Steel
Comments: 7
Kudos: 60





	Like Troubled Water Running Cold

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SailorRoxy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorRoxy/gifts).



The morning after they saved Valles Vicky, Rita woke up bright and early like normal. She got ready for the day and made her way over to the office. The office was empty when she came in, but that wasn’t a problem considering it was only eight and Juno didn’t come in till about nine on most mornings. Rita put her things on her desk in the usual set up with her comms propped up next to her computer and her snacks next to them before beginning her work. There was paperwork from the job the night before already sitting in her emails when she opened them. How they had managed to send them over that quickly was beyond her, but she went to work on looking them over anyway with a stream playing in the background.

Rita had a feeling something was off when ten o’clock rolled around and Juno hadn’t come in yet. He may not have been a morning person, but he still came into work on time even if it took three cups of coffee and a lot of willpower to wake up. She decided to wait until noon to call him, thinking he might have just needed to sleep in after being up so late last night. Even if that reasoning wasn’t too sound considering Juno would still force himself out of bed after only five minutes of sleep because the dumbass wouldn’t know self-care if she hit him over the head with it.

It was noon when that slight worry lingering in the back of her mind began to rear its ugly head. She tried her best to push it away and picked up her comms to give her boss a call. They rang twice before she was sent to voicemail and the same thing happened when she tried two more times. She grumbled as she collected her things, “Stupid boss not answering his comms. Can’t a girl catch a break.”

After she had everything ready, Rita locked up the office and made her way to Juno’s apartment. When she arrived she pounded on the door, doing her best to keep any worried tone out of her voice, “Mister Steel! Rise and shine! It’s nearly two in the afternoon so you better be out of bed or I’m gonna kick you out!”

After several minutes she finally gave up on getting him to open the door and opened it herself with the spare key he had given her in case of an emergency. As she entered she called out again, “Hey, boss, you in here?”

Upon inspection of the apartment, she found no sign of Juno. His comms, blaster, and car keys were all gone. That worry began to grow again. Where was Juno? Rita sat down and tried calling him again, but still received no answer. She called several more times and sent about a hundred texts, her tone in the messages ranging from grumpy to concerned pleading for him to answer. When she finally gave up on contacting him she decided to give something else a try.

“Hello?” Valles Vicky’s voice sounded through the comms.

“Hi miss Valles Vicky! I’m super sorry to bother you but I was wondering if you knew where Mister Steel went after everything wrapped up last night?” Rita asked.

“We parted ways at the party and he didn’t mention anything. I figured he was going home,” The club owner replied, “Is something wrong?”

“I haven’t seen him all morning. He’s not in his apartment and he’s not answering his comms,” Rita explained.

“That’s probably not good,” She commented, “Let me know if you need any help finding him. I’ll keep an eye out for any info.”

“Thank you,” Rita said. After that, they said their goodbyes and hung up. She tried calling him one last time, desperate to reach him, “Come  _ on _ , boss! If you ain’t already dead then I’ll kill you myself if you keep ignoring me!”

The call went unanswered and that was when Rita finally broke. She knew Juno didn’t like her tracking his comms without permission, but she had to figure out where he was. She had to make sure he was okay and not dead in a dumpster somewhere. Navigating through her comms, she quickly pulled up her tracking program and set it to Juno’s phone. Several agonizing minutes later, a location showed up on the screen. Rita raised an eyebrow and muttered, “Oasis Casino Resort? Why would Mister Steel go there?”

Either some rich person had stolen Juno’s comms or he had left for a job in the middle of the night. The latter wouldn’t surprise Rita at all, Juno was impulsive like that and had more than once disappeared to a job without telling a soul. Even if it didn’t surprise her, though, it still hurt. She felt almost like Juno didn’t bother telling her because he didn’t need her. She knew that probably wasn’t the case, but the reality that Juno didn’t leave so much as a note because he didn’t think anyone cared enough to notice hurt just as much if not more. Rita swore one day she would knock some sense into that thick skull, why Juno was like that she didn’t know.

“Oh, Mister Steel,” She said, voice filled with frustration as she talked to her comms as if it would answer back. As if Juno’s voice would suddenly echo from the speakers, “You better have a good explanation for this when you get back!”

Knowing she couldn’t really do anything from her position, Rita sighed heavily and locked up Juno’s apartment. She knew Juno would call if he needed to, so she made sure to turn up the ringtone on her comms as she headed home. After eating dinner and checking her comms about a dozen more times, she finally went to bed. She did her best to convince herself that everything would be fine, but it wasn’t very effective. She was always worried about Juno when he went out on jobs, he was her best friend after all, but it was ten times worse when he disappeared like that. Rita decided she would check on him in the morning since there was no use in staying up all night when there was nothing more to do.

The next morning Rita woke up to find a voice message left on her comms from Juno. She cursed herself for sleeping through it. She was usually easily woken by her comms, so she didn’t understand why that hadn’t happened when he called. She scrambled to unlock the device and hit play on the message.

_ “Rita, this is Juno. I- I have no idea why I’m calling. You want to know the truth? I’m not even sure how much I can tell you- or how much trouble I’m gonna get the both of us in trying to tell it. The stakes are high this time, Rita. This isn’t some argument over stream timetables or cheating wives anymore. This is everything. Giving this to me- Jesus, what was he thinking? A guy does that for you, Rita, do you have to trust him back? Even if you aren’t sure you know who he is- even if you aren’t sure you know his real face, his real name _ _ or what he’s really capable of doing to you? And with this much on the line, do I really have a choice? I want you to close up the office. Take a week off. Take a month, hell. And if you don’t hear from me by then, there’s a safe underneath my desk. I want you to take—” _

The message cut off and Rita swore. After knowing Juno for over fifteen years, she had received several calls like this before. She knew about the safe and she knew what to do if Juno didn’t come back, but that didn’t stop her heart from leaping into her throat at the words. There was something different about the call too. Rita didn’t really understand what all of Juno’s rambling meant, but it seemed serious. She trembled. Juno sounded like he really thought he was going to die this time around and that thought terrified her. What kinda high stakes job did he think was worth running off in the night without a trace?

Rita tried calling back as soon as she finished listening to the message, but once again there was no answer. After about ten calls and two dozen texts, she felt about ready to throw her comms against the wall. She tried tracking his comms again, but they didn’t show up this time. She double-checked her entire tracking program, going over every detail and retrying the search multiple times. Finally, she gave up on locating him, realizing that they must have been turned off sometime after he tried calling her.

After pacing for several minutes and trying to come up with any way to find him, Rita finally decided to see if the casino had any security footage of Juno. She figured she might be able to piece together what was going on if she had a visual on him. Usually while doing something like that she would laugh about being a private eye herself, but instead she didn’t make a sound as her hands flew across her laptop’s keyboard. She didn’t feel like joking around, not when Juno was possibly in danger or worse. 

When she finally gained access, Rita studied the footage starting from the night he disappeared. She scanned every camera with unwavering focus. When Juno walked through the entrance, she breathed a short sigh of relief. Even if it didn’t give her an answer, she was on the right track. As she watched, she noticed a man with Juno. He was tall and dressed nicely. He almost seemed familiar, but Rita wasn’t sure where she had seen him. She ran facial recognition on him but came up completely empty. Whoever he was, there wasn’t a scrap of information on him in the galaxy. They separated after talking for a moment in the lobby. Juno didn’t look happy as he made his way through the hotel before disappearing into room one-one-thirteen. Not long after, a woman came to collect him and they went into one of the private game rooms that don’t contain cameras. They were in there for quite a while, only exiting for a bathroom trip before going back in for another hour. After that, they returned to their hotel room. Juno left to make a call, most likely to Rita. During the night several hotel workers showed up at the door and went in after several minutes of knocking. When they finally went in there was nobody inside. Puzzled, Rita went back through the feed and then began looking over other cameras too, where she saw Juno and the other man exiting a vent in the VIP garage. Then they stole a car, drove through the wall, and that was the last of them that Rita saw in the footage.

“What in god’s name has he gotten himself into?” Rita wondered aloud.

She spent hours trying to figure out a way to find him. At one point she considered driving out to the casino but decided against it. Juno had a habit of making enemies everywhere he went, so it probably wasn’t a good idea to go in asking around for him. When she finally gave up, she sat down on her bed with tears in her eyes, scared for Juno. She prayed that he would come back soon.

After that, she did what Juno asked and took time off. She still came into the office every once in a while to check on the place and make sure Juno hadn’t returned. She also made sure to call him daily and send texts whenever she felt like it. Rita knew he probably wouldn’t be a fan of his comms being jammed with messages but she was too worried to care. Even though she didn’t have work, Rita also felt on edge a lot. Her thoughts would wander and she would find herself wondering what Juno was up to. Her mind came up with the worst scenarios like maybe he was kidnapped and taken to some secret underground bunker where he was being tortured or something. Even if that probably wasn’t the case, it still stressed her out way too much. 

About two weeks passed and that was when Rita began wondering how to pack up the office. She stood in the middle of the main room and looked around. She thought about how if she hadn’t gone to sleep that night she might have been able to talk some sense into Juno and get him to not risk his life or to even just talk to him one last time. She sank to the floor and sucked in a shuddering breath before letting out a sob. Tears made their way down her face. She missed her best friend. Juno was honestly like family to her and she wasn’t sure what she would do without him.

Rita froze when there was a sudden sound of the door opening. Her head whipped around as she stood up. Juno stepped in the room, missing an eye and definitely looking thinner than when he left. He glanced up at her, looking tired, “Hey Rita. I-”

He let out an ‘oof’ when she tackled him in a hug. She was still crying, but they were tears of relief now, “Mister Steel! You’re alive! Thank god! I was so worried you know. What kinda detective doesn’t tell his own secretary when he’s going to drop off the face of Mars like that? You had me so worried!”

“Sorry about that,” Juno spoke honestly, “I didn’t expect to be gone that long.”

“What exactly happened?” Rita asked, “I mean you were gone for over two weeks and also you’re kinda missing an eye.”

They sat down and Juno told her a tale of mind reading and evil Martian technology. He spoke of a master thief that needed his help, though he never said the thief’s name or why there was a wistfulness in the detective’s voice when he mentioned him. He explained that the pill did give him the ability to look into other’s minds, but when she bombarded him with questions he touched the patch over his right eye and said he’d rather not talk about it. She connected the dots about that quickly and decided it was best not to put up a fuss over the details.

“Wow, Mister Steel,” She said as she put a comforting hand on his arm, “It sounds like you’ve been through a lot. Maybe you shouldn’t be in the office today. You need some rest after all that.”

“No, I’ll be fine,” He waved a dismissive hand, “It’s not like I’ll be able to sleep anyway.”

Rita’s heart twisted at the way Juno said that so casually. When he began walking to his office she asked one more question, “Is there anything I can do to make you stop doing this to yourself, Mister Steel?”

The detective paused for a moment before he continued walking. He didn’t give an answer and Rita knew it because he didn’t have one. There was no way to make him drop his self-destructive habits. All she could do was help him pick up the pieces and hope he wouldn’t get himself killed.

Their lives went mostly back to normal after Juno returned. He was in a slump for a while before he finally got a job helping Ramses O’Flaherty discover who was trying to kill him. With a shiny new cybernetic eye and a new purpose, it seemed like things were actually looking up. A few days before the election, Juno told her he wasn’t going to be coming into the office the next day because he had to do something for Ramses and that she needed to keep an ear out in case he called for help. 

Rita was glad to have a day to herself sometimes when she knew Juno wasn’t in any more danger than normal. She watched her streams and went through her emails to see if they had gotten any new jobs, checking her comms every once in a while to see if Juno needed anything. She ended up not hearing from him for the rest of the day but she didn’t worry too much, figuring that he was just busy. Before she went to bed she sent a quick text asking how the job went.

The next morning Rita awoke to find that she never got a reply. Puzzled, she called Juno. Upon not getting an answer, she called a second and then a third time before cursing, “Oh come  _ on _ , boss! Not again!”

She did the same thing as she did during the Miasma fiasco. She checked the office and then his apartment. Then she tracked his comms but they didn’t show up at all. Finally, she decided to make a call.

“Hello? Juno?” Ramses O’Flaherty asked when he picked up.

“Sorry, sir. This isn’t Mister Steel. I’m his secretary, Rita,” She explained. Luckily between having talked to Ramses already before and the serious situation, she was able to remain calm even while talking to someone so famous.

“Oh, Hello Rita,” He said, “Have you heard from Juno? I haven’t been able to reach him since he left for his investigation yesterday.”

“I haven’t, Mister O’Flaherty,” She said, fear making itself known in the back of her mind as she spoke, “I was calling to ask you the same thing.”

“That’s concerning,” The mayoral candidate commented, “He is probably fine. Maybe that investigation is just taking a while. If he doesn’t show up soon I will send out some people to search for him.”

Then came the waiting game. She came into the office every day like normal, desperately hoping that the detective would show back up. Election day came and Ramses became mayor while Pilot Pereyra had disappeared without a trace. When Juno hadn’t returned by then Ramses sent out search parties in the subways. Rita felt helpless. She began staying up at night scared for her friend and once again wondering if this was it, that Juno had finally bitten off more than he could chew. She tried not to think about him laying dead in some dark tunnel deep underground, but still found herself doing so more than once. That fear seemed more and more likely as each day passed. Days turned into weeks. Oldtown got walled off for whatever project Ramses had in store for it. Big changes were coming to Hyperion City, but Rita couldn’t find it in herself to be excited. 

She had finally given up hope of ever seeing Juno again when Ramses called her one evening, “We’ve spotted Juno in the sewers under Oldtown. I’ve sent a Theia-bot to go retrieve him.”

Rita couldn’t contain her joy. After saying goodbye to the mayor, she jumped into her car and drove to the sewer entrance closest to Oldtown. Even though she usually would have protested heavily on the idea of rummaging down in the sewers, that didn’t matter as she was desperate to see her friend again.

Soon after she entered the tunnel, she came across a Theia-bot. It took mere moments to gain access to its controls. Once she did that she was able to look at the data of all the other Theia-bots and she also had a big metal bodyguard in case anything else came after her. Once the Theia-bots located Juno, Rita knew exactly where to go. She practically sprinted to his location, sending the Theia-bot ahead to make sure he was safe.

After sending the bunnies away and she finally saw Juno was safe, anger flared up inside her. What gave him the right to just disappear for weeks at a time like that? Even when he was back he didn’t even think to say anything to let her know he was okay. She made a show of trying to pretend it wasn’t her while also letting him know how much it hurt to not know where he was.

She rounded the corner and snuck up behind Juno as he was rambling out a big long apology monologue, “Hi Mister Steel.”

The detective jumped and whipped around, “How long were you behind me?”

“Just for the last "please please." I miss anything you wanna say again?” She asked, lying about how much she heard because she knew he had a reputation to uphold.

He apologized again and there was something in it that really sounded real. The way he held himself seemed different. Rita wasn’t sure what had happened while Juno was gone, but whatever it was had changed him. She tackled him in another hug, “Not everyone in the galaxy wants you dead, you know.”

“You know what Rita?” Juno said with a chuckle, “I think I finally do know that.”

In the weeks following that endless night in Newtown, Rita began to see really how much Juno has changed and it made her heart soar. After years of reckless sacrifices and self-deprecation, it seemed that Juno had finally found it in himself to want to live. Even when they left for the stars with their new family, he continued getting better. Rita was so glad to see her friend improving. She still worried about him some days, but she was always going to worry. Juno was like family to her, and nothing could change that.

**Author's Note:**

> This is it!! My first commission piece! When they gave me this prompt I was so excited! Exploring not only another point of view in canon but also a deeper side to Rita was really fun! I hope you guys enjoyed :D
> 
> You can find me on [my twitter](https://twitter.com/lovelynakahara?s=09), [my tumblr](https://lovelynakahara.tumblr.com/) and [my podcast tumblr](https://lovelyblupjeans.tumblr.com/)!! And as always, comments and kudos are very much appreciated <3


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